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I do like to Beer beside the Seaside! (See our photos of Beer)Beer Hostel is a very nice county house on the edge of this fishing village in the south east corner of Devon. As advertised the weather was sunny and it was the first time this year that I have used factor 25 sun block, but unfortunately only after getting slightly burnt on the first day. We spent most of our time exploring the coastal path which was very rewarding and had a surprising amount of ascent and descent not found even a short distance inland. I especially liked all the crinkely bits along the shore line, almost a sub-tropical micro-climate. Some of the area had been part of a very large land slip about a century ago. A very diverse flora, said to be because of the very mild winters and humidity. Yes, finally we did have a cream tea in the nearby town of Seaton. Clive Saturday’s walk took us to Branscombe, returning to Beer via the coast path. As we ate our sandwiches on the cliff-top, a weird sea fog rolled in, blotting out the view. Helen entertained us with stories of ghostly axe-wielding ship-wrecked mariners who emerge from the fog to reek a horrible revenge on unsuspecting picnickers. Having failed to be put off our sandwiches we climbed higher and emerged into sunshine, looking down on a carpet of cloud in the bay. Returning to Beer the group dispersed into pubs, gift shops, ice cream kiosks - you can guess who chose which. Trudi bought freshly-caught mackerel on the quayside for her tea, and raved about it for the rest of the weekend. On Sunday we walked the coast path from Lyme Regis to Seaton, through the strange Undercliff area of forest and landslips, with mist again making it seem more like the Amazonian rainforest than the Devon seaside. Someone said there were teashops every hundred yards on this walk - but they were wrong so they can expect a horrible revenge next time the fog comes in. Bank Holiday Monday was amazingly hot and sunny, and we walked more coast path to Sidmouth, this time the more traditional cliff, sand and sea views, followed, of course, by the obligatory cream tea. Dave P 
Woodland Wander Roy Norfolk, the warden of Westwood near Thaxted, was kind enough to give us a guided tour of this traditionally managed coppiced woodland, pointing out all the fabulous plants that made this a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Coppiced glades were filled with forget-me-not, speedwell and drooping may-blossom as well as early purple orchids, common spotted orchids, yellow archangel and the incredibly rare herb paris. The diversity of flora is amazing, which makes it all the more disappointing that this may be the last year it will be like this. Due to protests from some local residents the volunteers have be ordered not to sleep over. This means that there is no longer a human presence at night to deter the deer from nibbling on the rare flowers and the shooting coppice stools and already deer damage can be seen. Everyone found the tour fascinating. On behalf of CYHA we will be sending Roy a letter of thanks along with a modest donation to help support his work.
Going Dutch 
Thursday 6th May 1999 The four of us (Trudi, George, Mark and myself) set of for Harwich from my house on Thursday morning in Mark’s car. We found Dave, Alison and Helen already in the terminal building having a tea break which we duly joined. The trip across to the Hook on the HSS (giant high speed catamaran) was largely uneventful, apart from the huge-blowout-eat-as-much-as-you-can buffet which Dave, George and myself indulged in. We took a train from the Hook to the Hague, which went via a round-about route through Rotterdam. Because of this the journey took approximately 50 minutes in relatively fast train even though the Hague is only a few miles from the Hook ! The YH was only a short walk from the station and like many city hostels was more like a hotel, but was nevertheless pleasant, clean and secure with card locks on the front door, on each landing door and on each room. Our room had en-suite toilet, shower and washbasin. After checking in, we rested for a little while and then had a short walk into the center of the Hague. We then caught a tram from just outside the YH to the coast (no. 9 to the end of the line I think) followed by a short walk through the dunes to Debs’ and Nico’s house. We spent a very pleasant evening here, having a splendid evening meal prepared by Nico in the garden whilst admiring Debs’ ornamental rock garden and drinking lots of wine. Friday 7th May 1999 - the BIG day Lorna and Tom met up with us mid-morning at the YH after arriving on a later ferry and spending Thursday night together in a cheap/seedy hotel near the Hook (Oooerrr missus). We spent the rest of the morning sightseeing around the centre of the Hague. Notable sights were one of the Queen’s residences, impressive courtyards surrounded by government/state buildings and a large ornamental lake. We then made our way back to the YH where we dressed up in our posh togs and caught a tram back to the same station we used to visit Debs and Nico.
The wedding ceremony was held in one of the rooms of a museum on the sea front not far from Debs’ and Nico’s house. Here we saw the other friends and relatives of Debs including the "men in kilts" - Jim and Craig. The service was short, but poignant and gracefully conducted by an elderly gentleman who had the appearance of clergyman/vicar even though he wasn’t. The room had a wonderful view over the sea which added to the atmosphere. The wedding dinner was in a nearby hotel (which Nico partly owned) and was excellent lasting to 7:00 PM when the evening buffet was planned to start! On finishing the main courses we went to the downstairs lounge area for a dessert feast. After this course most of the group went outside for some fresh air and a short walk. When we returned to the lounge after a relatively short while we discovered that an enormous sumptuous buffet had been laid out. Only the most greedy of us (i.e. all of us) made a foray into the buffet before we wasted away. It was a very agreeable evening with live music and free beer! Trudi "was pulled by" or "pulled" one of Nico’s colleagues and Mark spent most of the evening having a tete-a-tete with Nico and Debs’ au-pair, Hetvig. Later in the evening Hetvig lead a small group of us (Helen, Mark, Tom and myself) through the centre of the Hague to a very lively pub where we had several more beers, some of which were bought for us by 2 of the locals we met there. Saturday 8th May 1999 Most of us hired bikes from the local station and cycled to the coast and then along through the sand dunes towards Amsterdam (north-easterly). Alison and Helen took a tram in-land to somewhere which I have completely forgotten [Ed: It was the beautiful town of Delft]. George left to go to a Ship/Train AGM meeting in Antwerp for the rest of the weekend and part of the next week (nudge, nudge, know what I mean). You would think given the popularity of cycling in Holland the Dutch would have reasonably decent bikes, but NO, most of them are shite as I found out to my cost. Most bikes have no gears and no hand operated brakes (they use back pedal brakes which are a total bastard to use when you really need them). It took me 3 attempts to get a working bike from the station; the first one had loose handlebars while the second one had a major design flaw - when I turned while pedaling, the pedals crashed into the front wheel! Initially getting out of the centre of the Hague proved to be a bit of a nightmare - where the f**k do we go now?, dodging cars, trams and other bikes, wheels getting stuck in tram lines, people crashing and falling of their bikes etc. However, we were soon on a main cycling path that took us to the coast and once there, there were very good cycle paths that ran through the dunes along the coast. We stopped off a few times at the specially constructed view points before arriving at the pancake shop. Here we had an excellent lunch of multi-filled pancakes which were washed down with some local beer. We continued along the coast to Katwijk where we stopped for a short break and a stroll along the beach. We then made our way back to the Hague and our YH. During the evening we wandered back into the centre of the Hague looking for somewhere to eat. After the usual indecisiveness we ended up at an old bavarian style beer keller/house where we had a rather posh (i.e. expensive) meal. Unfortunately Mark was beginning to suffer from the rather nasty cold we brought with us and was definitely not a happy bunny that evening. Sunday 9th May 1999 In the morning we caught a train to Leiden and then a bus to the world famous Keukenhof gardens where we spent rest of the morning and part of the afternoon. On leaving the station at Leiden for the bus, we walked through the largest collection of bikes I have ever seen - a "sea of bikes" in fact. I have to say that the gardens were very impressive and well maintained, containing a large variety of vividly coloured plants (daffodils, hyacinths, tulips etc.). There was also displays of fairly rare plants such as orchids which had their own special green house. The only disappointment was that the tulip fields had already been harvested. We then caught the train back to the Hook where we returned on the 4:05 PM HSS ferry to Harwich, finishing off a very enjoyable long weekend. Robert Fame! You will doubtless be an avid reader of the Saffron Walden Reporter, and have seen the picture of us working in the Youth Hostel garden. "Green fingered volunteers hope the new look gardens will be ready to show later this year"! Helen Moves East Everyone’s favourite librarian is starting a new job in Chatham, Kent where she will be organising a community information website for the Medway area amongst other duties. |
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